Destruction AllStars lets everyone yell at you through your controller

Destruction AllStars is a colorful, vibrant destruction derby style game, and it can be fun to share in chaotic online games like these with friends and rivals. There’s just one issue in the new PlayStation 5 title, and it’s that players are getting a little too much chatter from other players through an unlikely source: their controller.

Currently, the game is set up to put the entire lobby in a voice chat with all other players. Destruction AllStars also uses the PlayStation 5 controller as a headset and microphone as a default setting, Players can mute themselves, but it’s not a lasting setting, and every match they must go through the process again.

Anyone who spends any amount of time in online games knows why this is a bad idea. Some players are loud or impolite, but hearing them — all at once — through one’s controller is a little more unpleasant. It turns the peripheral into a nightmare portal, casting a cursed ear into every other player’s living room. No, thank you! That’s not good at all!

Right now, the best method to avoid this overwhelming experience is to hit the PlayStation button while in a lobby. Then, scroll to the voice chat Activity Card, and hit the Square button. This will need to be repeated for every match, but the alternative seems much worse. Then again, this is a game about a destruction derby, so maybe this is a high-concept way to bring some level of uncertainty and chaos into the player’s hands.

Update (Feb. 5): Lucid Games released hotfix 1.2.2 on Friday, disabling multiplayer lobby voice communications by default.

This means that players won’t have to listen to everyone else in their lobby. There will be further changes down the road, too: “We are actively working on longer-term enhancements to the voice communication system,” Lucid said on Twitter.